Brussels, 11/03/2014 (Agence Europe) - On Tuesday 11 March, the European Commission adopted the first raft of delegated acts on the reform of the common agriculture policy (CAP). These texts add to the four base acts adopted on 13 December 2013 by the European Parliament and Council on the new CAP.
“The adoption of the delegated act is the final stage, after which the member states will be able to draft rules at national level for the implementation of the new CAP”, commented Dacian Ciolos, European Commissioner for Agriculture. He added: “it is vital for the member states to be in a position to adopt rules at national level at very short notice, so that, definitively, the reform of the CAP is fully implemented from January 2015”.
The delegated acts were the subject of in-depth discussions with the experts of the 28 member states and the European Parliament. Their adoption by the Commission opens up a two-month period, during which the European Parliament and the Council will examine the texts in detail. If there are no objections on the part of these two institutions, the delegated acts will be published at the same time as the corresponding implementing measures, to allow the member states to adopt their implementation details for the reform of the CAP at national or regional level.
The ten delegated acts which come on top of the four basic regulations lay down rules for: - direct payments; - the integrated management and control system, the conditions for payments to be refused or withdrawn and administrative sanctions applicable to direct payments, support for rural development and conditionality; -rules for agricultural products benefiting from private storage aid; - the fruit and vegetable and processed fruit and vegetable sectors; - aid for the accompanying measures in the framework of a programme to promote the consumption of fruit and vegetables in schools; - aid programmes in the olive oil and table olive sectors; - measures in the framework of national aid programmes in the wine-making sector; - support for rural development; - paying agencies and other entities, financial management, clearance of accounts, guarantees and the use of the euro; - public intervention expenditure. The delegated act on the new regime for vine planting authorisations (applicable from 2016 and up to 2030) will be published at a later date. Here is a summary of the most recent adjustments to the texts on the most problematic subjects at the meetings with the Council and the Parliament.
Young farmers. The Commission has laid down the conditions under which groups of young farmers (for example, with older farmers or family members) will be eligible for aid to young farmers. The young farmer will have to prove that he or she has an active role in the farm (not necessarily as farm manager). The delegated act establishes detailed rules regarding eligibility conditions in cases where a farmer is a legal person, a group of legal persons or group of natural persons. Under the reformed CAP, an additional payment of 25% will be granted to young farmers (under the age of 40) starting up in the profession (in addition to the basic payment) for the first five years of activity.
Active farmers. The reform provides for a negative list of professional activities to be excluded from eligibility for direct payments (airports, railway companies, water distribution companies, real estate companies and permanent sports and recreational facilities). This list will be obligatory for the member states, unless the companies in question are able to prove that they carry out a genuinely agricultural activity. Member states will be able to add other activities to this negative list. In the delegated acts, the Commission stipulates that the countries can change the negative list, as long as they ensure that any additions to it are compatible with the rules of the WTO (on the green box of aid which create no competition distortions).
Greening. On the weighting for the calculation of zones of ecological interest (ZEI), a coefficient of 0.3% will be applied to catch crops and crops which capture nitrogen (protein crops). For example, the coefficient will be 2 for hedges, meaning that a hedge of 5 m² will be considered to be a ZEI of 10 m².
The proposal also allows countries to draw up a list of crops recognised as ZEIs, laying down authorised practice. The Commission will tolerate limited use of pesticides on catch crops and protein crops, but the countries will have to prove the positive effects of these crops on biodiversity.
Sanctions/greening. The Commission is bringing in more proportionality in the basic act. For example, farmers respecting the criterion of crop diversification but not the ZEI criterion would lose just 50% of what is normally available. Farmers will lose 100% of the green payment in the fourth year of non-compliance (as per the general rule).
Delegated acts. Article 290 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union allows the legislator (in this case the European Parliament and the Council) to delegate powers to the Commission to adopt non-legislative acts of a general scope, which add to or modify certain non-essential elements of a legislative act (quasi-legislative acts). Legal acts adopted in this way by the Commission are known as delegated acts (Article 290, paragraph 3). (LC)